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Court orders Polanski‘s presence in US for sentencing

23 Jan, 2010 - 02:30 PM IST | | 216 Reads

MUMBAI: A Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza judge has ruled that Roman Polanski must return to the US to be sentenced in a decades-old sex case. Espinoza said that he ruled "in defense of the integrity of the justice system, he needs to surrender."

His ruling is likely to be appealed.

Attorneys of the 76-year-old director have argued that their client should be sentenced in absentia to time already served after pleading guilty in 1978 to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

Prosecutors insist Polanski must appear in a Los Angeles courtroom and not be permitted to manipulate the justice system.

Polanski, arrested on a U.S. warrant, spent more than 60 days in a Swiss jail before being transferred to house arrest in his Swiss vacation home Dec. 4.

An attorney for Polanski‘s victim also urged Espinoza to have the director sentenced in absentia.

Attorneys of Polanski who fled to France and has been a fugitive ever since said that the judge‘s promise is binding and Polanski has served his full sentence. They have asked Espinoza for a full hearing with witnesses about allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct in the case.

Polanski‘s victim, Samantha Geimer, was 13 when she met Polanski for a modeling shoot in Los Angeles in 1977. Polanski was accused of plying her with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill then raping her at Jack Nicholson‘s house.